Chapter 10, Reception

Nagate watched the familiar blinding trail of red light pierce the sky, drawn by Benisuzume as she flew towards an approaching spacecraft. It was a scene he hoped he would never need to see again once the humanoid existential threat blocking Sidonia's path was dealt with.

However, his best efforts on that rock were not enough. Benisuzume survived in 1:10 scale, and this time humans needed to borrow her power to help the incoming USG Kellion pull off its emergency landing into the main hangar. Yes, yet another shuttle is crashing onto the Ishimura, third in a row! He began to suspect this would be the norm for the rest of the operation.

Rest of the operation? How can he define it, though? Something or someone on the incoming ship would help to end the Necromorph infestation, or so he heard, but it turned out to be a very small shuttle that struggled to enter the landing guidance channel properly.

It was Gabe's idea to open the hangar gate in anticipation for the Kellion, since the automated landing guidance system was broken in one of the many power blackouts. Then, the next step became send out the one squad member with the most personal thrust power among them and let her act as a humanoid tugboat. Shizuka... No, Benisuzume, agreed in a heartbeat.

What if she escapes into the untraceable darkness?

"You watched me die!" The omnipresent voice whispered, making Nagate look around. It sounded like both Eiko and Shizuka, and... Himself? No, it should be his clone template, Saitou Hiroki, the man who raised him. The original hero of Sidonia.

"I thought you wanted everything to go like that, granddad?" It was true; the old man's survivalist hideout was physically cut off from all Sidonian emergency services, in case he would be rejuvenated or cloned against his will. Nagate was effectively forced to watch him die and live in the shadow of his mummified face for years, until crashing through some walls and being discovered by Shizuka.

"Why aren't you out there?" The voice asked.

"My suit boosters aren't compatible with theirs."

Before his eyes, Benisuzume has dissolved her lance-like Ena weapon and expanded the material into a dangerously large net to hold the Kellion's front. What if she assimilates the spacecraft then and there? He gripped his stasis spear tight.

VRRRRRRRRM.

The Kellion's thrusters switched off and retro verniers powered on, compressing air inside the hangar, humming along with Benisuzume's booster rings. It was a shaky landing, but nothing was broken on either ship. The red humanoid Gauna pulled back and hovered in the air next to the hangar walkway, saluting the incoming crew.

"Cousin Hailey!" Mike launched himself at the opening door, narrowly missing the retreating Ena substance, barely stopping himself in time, "Welcome to the Ishimura! Make us whole!"

"Fuck off, Mike!" A public radio call said, "Your singing is still shit, my leg just got fucked up."

Two men with pulse rifles exited the Kellion, visibly forcing themselves to pay no attention to the bickering, looking properly like security professionals. Behind them was a man in full spacesuit and a woman who reminded Nagate of Captain Kobayashi.

"Shit, you're all CEC is sending?" Gabe has arrived at the walkway. He continued asking, "Few shooters, one fixer and one white collar?"

"We're the damage assessment team." The woman answered with a stern voice, "Have to check how bad the damage is first, then we call for tug or evac. Kendra Daniels, by the way."

"Gabe Weller. At least you know there's zombie demons from outer space, right?"

"We've got a spoken record from acting captain White, so..."

"Cut off their limbs." Nagate and Gabe said simultaneously, giving Kendra and her team a good shock.

"...Thanks. I'm going to look for a suitable computer, and Issac will go check on the singularity core with the shooters. Our co-pilot is supposed to also watch his back, unfortunately she's injured in the landing, so I'd ask to borrow a hand from you."

"Mike's cousin, right? Sure, me or Shen can..."

A sudden flash dip to darkness, and an hair-raising strike of gravity instability. The unwavering red light of Benisuzume floated in mid air until artificial normalcy returned.

"Shit!" Gabe cursed, "Boss, come in! Mr. Temple! The fuck just happened with the core?"

"Then I'd better have a look ASAP." Issac, walking by them, turned around and tapped him on his shoulder armor, "By the way, what's the situation in Medical?"

"Not the worst, they held it together." He paused, and pointed towards the red humanoid, "Right, our new friend Shizuka, helped contain the situation a lot. Long story."

Nagate did not like this conversation, even though it was all true. His survival instincts were all protesting against any positive association with Benisuzume.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Remember your original mission?" The voice asked, "Weren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on the marker?"

"I'm afraid of what she can do when she touches it."

"This is Vincent." Alissa finally replied over a torrent of static pulses, "We're still alive at the reactor section, but the... Shit. The composite big fucker came here. Don't have a choice, basically had to feed him into the centrifuge. Temple is keeping the machine up for now."

"Ugh..." Issac groaned at the thought of anything being fed into the Ishimura's reactor centrifuge, especially something described as the composite big fucker. He shook his helmeted head, "Better start working, then."

"She's a Gauna. She's going to assimilate them." Nagate heard a warning from himself, and raised his head towards the direction of Hyggs particles buzzing.

As they debriefed, Benisuzume flew past them towards the flight lounge with both Johnstons, Hailey and Mike, in her arms - the uninjured latter asked for a ride simply because he thought it would be funny. It was a surreally embarrassing display that only Hailey noticed, though she was too scared of falling off to point out.

"They will not be made whole as long as the Gauna is here."

Out of the lounge's door, came three people in a rush; Zoe, Anne, and Nicole.

////

Nicole saw enough indicators of safety in the hangar to allow herself to relax: No mutants, clean air, armed guards, the red porcelain guardian angel, and finally, a Shockpoint-capable spacecraft that can ferry her back home right away.

She couldn't fully believe the last part; thoigh, she has Kyne's message telling her she's top priority for evacuation alongside the Messengers. His contacts have sent for more help, and they'll pull everyone else on the Ishimura. It sounded too good to be true, but she was too tired to carefully think over the implications. Besides, the safest place in the entire galaxy right now would be next to the friendly killing machine that imprinted on her like a newborn goose.

Outside of the flight lounge, Gabe was transferring his extra gear to the fixer who just arrived on the Kellion: "Hey, Mike! Give us your modules if you're staying here, no time to get Issac one from the toolbox."

Wait, Issac? Nicole looked at the fixer's helmet. There were too many models of CEC engineering suits and not enough space for personal markings.

"Sure. You want the Line Gun too?" Mike began taking off his kinesis module after landing.

"Probably needs a frame for it..." Gabe was interrupted as the masked fixer gave him a thumb up and knocked his armor lightly.

The newcomer headed towards Nicole and disengaged his helmet: "Fuck's sake, you're okay!"

"...Yeah, Issac!" She had a lot of words in mind for him when the Aegis VII mission still seemed like a normal soul-crushing corporate medical desk job, but now they seemed to have all evaporated like... Biomass in front of a particle cannon.

A rational part of her subconsciousness analyzed herself: It felt just like the case of Norman Kleiss, a classical trauma psychology example in the workplace counseling course she took a long time ago. Norman broke up with his girlfriend Eunice in 1941, shortly before Pearl Harbor - and when the war broke out, they immediately started an inseparable letter correspondence. His diary was filled with the word "survive" in the the hectic days before the battle of Midway, which he did survive. The couple literally lived happily ever after!

Zoe stared at her latching onto Issac, who awkwardly fumbled with his kinesis module, unable to fully snap it on. She shrugged and gave him a hand.

"Nicole, I can't believe what I said to you. ...But I was so worried when the ship went dark."

"I know. You don't need to come here, Issac. Did they brief you the details?"

"No. We knew there's a blackout, then a call from the acting captain, and... The song."

"The song?"

"...Shitty one. Wait till I fix the centrifuge, I've done this for Perseus." He was about to put his helmet on, but Nicole grabbed him by his cheeks and gave him a light squeeze.

"Nobody sings worse than you! Come back intact, you've got this."

"Yeah, you'll always make me whole."

She thought this was the weirdest thing he could have said, but she appreciated the dark humor while it lasted. Where's Kyne, though?

////

Gabe and Hammond huddled next to the ship terminal used by Kendra as a workstation. The status update they just received from the bridge was a worryingly fast development.

"Good news, the Necromorphs have retreated from main survivor holdouts." White spoke to them, face full of cold sweat under a defunct heating vent, "The thing designated as contagion source by Dr. Cross is crawling away, too, seems the bacteria solution worked."

"You said retreat." She caught onto his phrasing, "Tell us where they're going, sir?"

"The hangar. We can't reach Kyne for the last hour or so, but Cross and Vincent all think their goal is the Marker. I think you need to prepare for the worst."

"Jesus fuck." It was rare to hear an old earth religious curse instead of a unitologist one, though nowhere as rare as Anne swearing by a "Brother" attached to the trinity.

"Gabe Weller is next to you, right? Listen then. Son, Kyne borrowed you people, and then he re-routed you before he went dark. Now the source is heading your way, kill it."

"No problem..." He was interrupted by a localized earthquake. Yet another gravity system failure? A few seconds later another one followed; it sounded like someone or something wet was dragging heavy cargo across metal, just a few floors away.

"The Marker is moving from its holding area." White said in a perfectly calm voice, "We're all fucked."

////

As of the cosmic powers we're trying to deteriorate the emergency even faster, a newcomer to the main hangar announced its arrival with great spectacle: The doors opened for shuttle arrival, alarms at max volume, debris in the air, not enough time for the hangar's air stasis barrier to frilly activate.

Nagate activated his magnetic boots, held onto the nearest handrail with his left hand, reaching out his right arm and spear for Nicole and Anne to grab onto. The decompression was hard for those with no spacesuit.

Keeping his head low, he saw Benisuzume firing her Hyggs particle booster ring in front of her, balancing the air pressure. She flew towards them like the namesake insect, punched into the metal floor in front of her, then used her spare Ena to create another net. The energy counter on her back had only two lights on out of eighteen!

He gritted his teeth; finally the feel of of vacuum in his face subsided with the buzz of retro engines and the gate shutting again. Looking up with his fellow survivors, they saw a shuttle labeled M23 parking onto an empty lane at a glacial pace. Its door flew open, and a human shape stumbled out with hands in the air - almost mistaken for a Slasher, he thought, as he noticed himself reaching for the submachine gun on his belt.

It was Dr. Kyne. Following him, all with their arms up, were people he heard Anne and Nicole talk about: Lexine Murdoch, Eckhardt, and McNeill who has a hand missing, only a bandaged stump. They all looked devastated and deflated. Cowering from certain doom.

& Datamass reaction identified

& Datamass source hostile

Pilot suit PDA: Hyggs particle reaction detected

Behind them, was the doctor whom other doctors warned him about: Challus Mercer.

"Praise the Marker, the Kellion is not one second late for Convergence." Mercer said, and casually launched a stasis blast onto McNeill, pushing him aside on the walkway.

Mike and Hailey raised their guns at the doctor, who waved at them dismissively.

Pilot suit PDA: Gauna

Nagate instinctively pointed his gun towards Benisuzume. She has retracted her safety net and formed two katar blades on her forearms, the miniature versions of her gigantic skeleton form's infamous melee weapons.

"Brothers and sisters, an honorable duty is upon you!" Mercer announced, his voice echoing in the hangar, "The Kellion is chosen by the holy Marker to ferry its physical form back to Earth! Bow and serve for this glorious purpose."

"It's my boat, you rock sucker!" Hailey's trigger finger moved towards the magazine ejector switch on her pulse rifle, barely considering bystanders within the explosive radius, "Your church has no authority on me!"

"The intergalactic power of the Markers always provides." He wagged his free hand's finger, "If you can only see brute force, fine. Harris?"

The disfigured biomechanical man emerging from the door of M23 made her evaluate.

Brant Harris' upper body was practically dissolved and reconstructed around his bone blades and improvised power modules. His own biomass, Necromorph biomass taken from stray growth on the ship, and metal all blended into one another on the surface, lights burning sharp just like his orange eyes.

A red beam pierced the air and sliced through the cyborg's right limbs in a crescent shape, filling the air with the smell of burning organic matter. His arm blade fell off while his leg was cut halfway through; his intact left blade sank deep into the metal walkway for grip. Benisuzume has fired her particle cannon straight from her eye, without any pretense of a humanly comprehensible handheld weapon.

Nagate re-balanced his spear and began planning for the worst case scenario where he needed to take on both humanoid abominations. Then, he saw white and pale blue auras of Hyggs particle reaction forming on the cut surfaces on Brant's limb stumps. Soon, flesh-like Ena replaced the lost flesh before his eyes. It was Hyggs materialization just as a Gauna was capable of!

"Brother Terrence Kyne." Mercer stuck the barrel of his nailgun to the back of Kyne's head, prodding him to turn around and face the cyborg, "Thank you for the Ena sample. The Marker sees a worthy offering and showed me how to combine it with its blessed ex-vivo recombination. Glorious and generous! You still have a chance to tell the stray children to repent."